I specialize in Old and Middle English literature, book history and manuscript studies, historical linguistics and poetics. My current research focuses on the Wycliffite Bible, translation and vernacularisation more widely, and Old and Middle English poetry.

I am the Principal Investigator for the following research projects:

1. 'Towards a New Edition of the Wycliffite Bible’ funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (2016-2019), based at the English Faculty, University of Oxford

The project is undertaking preliminary work necessary to produce a much-needed new edition of the Wycliffite Bible (WB), the most widely disseminated and arguably the most complex of all surviving Middle English texts, as well as the most learned and widely attested of medieval European translations of the Vulgate. We are conducting a study of the textual tradition of the Bible and its early history in order to establish whether the traditional classification of the surviving manuscripts into two redactions, the Earlier and Later (believed to reflect the translators' first efforts to produce an English text and its subsequent revision) correctly reflects the variety of versions in circulation. We aim to investigate the relationships between important manuscripts and their value as evidence for different parts of the text. In addition we seek to understand the methods of the translators' work through the study of repeated changes in idiom and vocabulary between surviving versions and of the scholarly and interpretative apparatus that accompanies biblical text in manuscripts.

The project is exploring ways of editing WB and how such a large body of evidence can be presented and made intelligible to a user. We are developing a methodology for editing WB and will produce trial editions of select Old and New Testament books for presentation in print and online. The online edition will act as a framework for expansion when editions of other biblical books are created in future, or when further materials, such as additional images or records of variants, are developed to supplement the trial editions. The online environment will offer new research tools to scholars of WB and Middle English literature, act as a resource for teaching palaeography, editorial principles and techniques, and will support editing the complete biblical text as a result of a future collaborative project.

WB is the most extensive and complex of surviving Middle English texts, but its problems are not unique: consequently our work will have considerable implications for the study and editing of other contemporaneous texts, many of which exist in multiple redactions.

2. 'Editing the Wycliffite Old Testament Lectionary' funded by the John Fell Fund, Oxford, and Ludwig Humanities Research Fund, New College (2017-2018), based at the English Faculty, University of Oxford

co-Investigator: Dr Daniel Sawyer

Consultant: Professor Anne Hudson

Research Assistant: Cosima Gillhammer

The OTL is a liturgically organised set of Mass readings derived mostly from the Old Testament books of the Wycliffite Bible. It was circulated with the Wycliffite Bible and survives in 39 manuscripts. Its authorship is unknown, but it may be the work of the original translators or members of their circle. It reflects stages in the work on the translation that are not attested in biblical manuscripts proper, making it a highly important piece of evidence for textual critics of the Wycliffite Bible.

3. From the Vulgate to the Vernacular: Four Debates on an English Question c. 1450

Elizabeth Solopova, Jeremy Catto, Anne Hudson

British Writers of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period series, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of Toronto, forthcoming.

The work on the first complete English translation of the Bible, the Wycliffite Bible, seems to have been concentrated in Oxford, though the later professional copying was probably done mostly in London. In Oxford there seems to have been some academic interest, beyond the central circle of translators, in the theoretical issues raised by the work: given that the primary text used by the western church, the Vulgate, was itself a translation from the original languages of the various biblical books, was it legitimate to go further with translation into European vernaculars? if not, why were these vernaculars unacceptable? is there something about the 'ancient' languages, Hebrew, Greek and Latin, inherently superior to such vernaculars as English or French? or conversely, do such vernaculars lack a grammatical structure and vocabulary sophisticated enough to convey the ideas and material found in the Bible? Three Latin and one English treatises we are editing attempt to answer these and similar questions. The texts will be presented with facing translations. The introductory chapters will aim to explain the context and individuals involved, provide details about the biography of the authors, to offer a discussion of the structure of each text and to give an account of the participants’ views on language and translation.

An international workshop on medieval translations of the Bible into English and European vernaculars, funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Small Research Grants Programme (2018-2019), 14 March 2019, Oriel College, in collaboration with the Centre for the Study of the Bible in the Humanities. The workshop explores all aspects of biblical translation in the Middle Ages with a particular focus on contemporary theoretical contributions to the debate in England and elsewhere. It will mark the completion of work on Butler, Palmer, Ullerston: an Oxford debate c.1400 on biblical language, ed. Jeremy Catto, Anne Hudson and Elizabeth Solopova (Toronto: PIMS, forthcoming).

'Towards a New Edition of the Wycliffite Bible', Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Kent, 15 November, 2018

Lesley Smith (Oxford University), ‘Nicholas of Lyra: why does he bother with pictures?’

Elizabeth Solopova (Oxford University),‘The study of the Wycliffite Bible in Oxford and manuscripts of the Bible in New College’

Manuscripts of the Wycliffite Bible and Postilla of Nicolas of Lyra will be on display during this session.

In association with AHRC-funded project ‘Towards a New Edition of the Wycliffite Bible’.

With generous support from the Ludwig Humanities Research Fund, New College, Oxford.

Publications

From the Vulgate to the Vernacular: Four Debates on an English Question c. 1450

Edited by:

SOLOPOVA, E, Catto, J, Hudson, A

2020

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c-book

From Bede to Wyclif: The Knowledge of Old English within the Context of Late Middle English Biblical Translation and Beyond

Solopova, E

2019

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Journal article

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The Review of English Studies

The continuity between Old and Middle English periods has been a matter of interest and debate in the field of medieval studies. Though it is widely accepted that Old English texts continued to be copied and used in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the possibility that they were collected, read and studied, and influenced scholars and religious thinkers in late medieval England is often rejected as implausible. The reason most commonly given is the difficulty of understanding the Old English language in the late Middle Ages. The present article aims to reassess this view and re-examine evidence for the reading and use of Old English texts in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries with a primary focus on biblical translation. The article explores the possibility that Middle English glosses that occur in Old English sermon and biblical manuscripts reflect a scholarly interest in these texts, rather than a struggle to understand their language. The article also examines evidence that the translators of the Wycliffite Bible may have had some familiarity with Old English biblical translations, possibly as a result of study of biblical and sermon manuscripts

Dialect

Solopova, E

2017

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Chapter

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The Wycliffite Bible: Origin, History and Interpretation

The Wycliffite Bible: Origin, History and Interpretation offers new perspectives and research by leading scholars on the first complete translation of the Bible into English produced at the end of the 14th century by the followers of John ...

History

Index of Manuscripts of the Wycliffite Bible

Solopova, E

2017

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Chapter

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The Wycliffite Bible: Origin, History and Interpretation

The Wycliffite Bible: Origin, History and Interpretation offers new perspectives and research by leading scholars on the first complete translation of the Bible into English produced at the end of the 14th century by the followers of John ...

History

Index of Names, Places, and Texts

Solopova, E

2017

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Chapter

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The Wycliffite Bible: Origin, History and Interpretation

The Wycliffite Bible: Origin, History and Interpretation offers new perspectives and research by leading scholars on the first complete translation of the Bible into English produced at the end of the 14th century by the followers of John ...

History

Introduction: New Directions in Research on the First English Bible

Solopova, E

2017

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Chapter

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The Wycliffite Bible: Origin, History and Interpretation

The Wycliffite Bible: Origin, History and Interpretation offers new perspectives and research by leading scholars on the first complete translation of the Bible into English produced at the end of the 14th century by the followers of John ...

History

Preliminary Material

Solopova, E

2017

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Chapter

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The Wycliffite Bible Origin, History and Interpretation

The Wycliffite Bible: Origin, History and Interpretation offers new perspectives and research by leading scholars on the first complete translation of the Bible into English produced at the end of the 14th century by the followers of John ...

History

Select Bibliography

Solopova, E

2017

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Chapter

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The Wycliffite Bible: Origin, History and Interpretation

The Wycliffite Bible: Origin, History and Interpretation offers new perspectives and research by leading scholars on the first complete translation of the Bible into English produced at the end of the 14th century by the followers of John ...

History

The Latin Text

Solopova, E, Hudson, A

2017

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Chapter

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The Wycliffite Bible Origin, History and Interpretation

The Wycliffite Bible: Origin, History and Interpretation offers new perspectives and research by leading scholars on the first complete translation of the Bible into English produced at the end of the 14th century by the followers of John ...

History

The Manuscript Tradition

Solopova, E

2017

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Chapter

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The Wycliffite Bible: Origin, History and Interpretation

The Wycliffite Bible: Origin, History and Interpretation offers new perspectives and research by leading scholars on the first complete translation of the Bible into English produced at the end of the 14th century by the followers of John ...

History

The Wycliffite Psalms

Solopova, E

Edited by:

Atkin, T, LENEGHAN, F

2017

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Chapter

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The Psalms and Medieval English Literature:
From the Conversion to the Reformation

Preliminary Material

SOLOPOVA, E

Edited by:

SOLOPOVA, E

2016

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Chapter

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The Wycliffite Bible: Origin, History and Interpretation

The Wycliffite Bible: Origin, History and Interpretation offers new perspectives and research by leading scholars on the first complete translation of the Bible into English produced at the end of the 14th century by the followers of John ...